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{
    "id": 319146,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/319146/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 381,
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    "content": "how do you impose degrees on them? That is how we find that those so-called “degree holders” go and lease cane from unsuspecting farmers, gain eligibility, use their money to get elected but never represent the farmers. I want the farmers to truly elect one of their own to represent them on the board. In order for you to be a sugar-cane farmer, you do not need to have a degree. So, I want to urge the Minister to delete Clause 5(e), which provides that in order for you to be elected to the Sugar Board, you must hold a degree from a university recognised in Kenya. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we are having a board of farmers. What that board requires are very qualified and competent staff members to run its secretariat. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and the accountants must be properly qualified. The farmers should then send whoever they wish, who should be a sugar-cane farmer, to sit on the board and represent them. I want to support hon. Khalwale on the point of disbursement of the Sugar Development Levy (SDL). It happens that the areas that grow and produce the most sugar for the country get the least disbursement of SDL funds. By its very description, the SDL is intended to help develop sugar-cane. So, it should be targeted to areas where most sugar-cane is grown, such as Mumias, Bungoma, Kakamega, Kisii and other areas, on equitable basis, and not on first come first served or on equal basis. So, I want to urge the Minister, in the rules that will follow, to deal with that aspect as well. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, finally, the current Act provides – and I would want my learned friend, hon. Namwamba to let the Minister to listen to this very important point - that during privatisation, the farmers must be given 51 per cent of the mill. This defeats logic, economics and any other reason! That is because if you have a strategic partner coming to invest in a sugar mill, I have no doubt that farmers must be given stakes. The county governments who own land must be given stakes. But there is not a single investor---"
}